Professor Szymon Kawalla

Szy­mon Kawalla was born in Kraków on 2 June 1949 in a fam­ily with a centuries-long musi­cal tra­di­tion. He began to play the vio­lin when he was five years old. His father, Euge­niusz Kawalla, was his first teacher. From the very start he was very inter­ested in conducting.

Edu­ca­tion

• grad­u­ated from the Fry­deryk Chopin State Col­lege of Music in War­saw, Instru­men­tal Depart­ment, where he stud­ied the vio­lin with pro­fes­sors Tadeusz Wroński, Krzysztof Jakow­icz and Zenon Bąkowski — 1972;
• grad­u­ated from the Depart­ment of Com­po­si­tion, Con­duct­ing and Music The­ory at the Fry­deryk Chopin State Col­lege of Music in War­saw where he stud­ied sym­phonic and oper­atic con­duct­ing with Pro­fes­sor Stanisław Wisłocki — 1973;
• grad­u­ated from the Depart­ment of Com­po­si­tion, Con­duct­ing and Music The­ory at the Fry­deryk Chopin State Col­lege of Music in War­saw where he stud­ied com­po­si­tion with Pro­fes­sors Piotr Perkowski, Mar­ian Borkowski and Włodz­imierz Kotoński –1974;
• fur­thered his musi­cal edu­ca­tion with such out­stand­ing mas­ters as Pro­fes­sor David Ojs­trach (vio­lin), Pro­fes­sors Paweł Klecki and Igor Marke­vitsch (con­duct­ing) and Pro­fes­sor Mathilde Graef (cham­ber music);
• obtained his 1^st artis­tic degree in sym­phonic and oper­atic con­duct­ing at the Fry­deryk Chopin Acad­emy of Music in War­saw — 1982;
• obtained his 2nd artis­tic degree in sym­phonic and oper­atic con­duct­ing at the Fry­deryk Chopin Acad­emy of Music in War­saw — 1984;
• was given the title of pro­fes­sor of musi­cal arts –1992.

Pro­fes­sional career

• 1974–1978 — con­duc­tor of the I. Paderewski Pomeran­ian Sym­phony Orches­tra in Bydgoszcz;
• 1979–1980 — head and artis­tic direc­tor and prin­ci­pal con­duc­tor of the State Cham­ber Orches­tra in Toruń;
• 1980–1986 — head and artis­tic direc­tor and prin­ci­pal con­duc­tor of the T. Baird State Phil­har­monic in Zielona Góra and the Cham­ber Opera Stage in Zagan;
• 1985–1991 — head and artis­tic direc­tor and prin­ci­pal con­duc­tor of the Pol­ish Radio and Tele­vi­sion Sym­phony Orches­tra and Choir in Kraków;
• 1987–1995 — Prin­ci­pal Per­ma­nent Con­duc­tor of the Vienna Mod­ern Mas­ters, (Aus­tria and USA);
• 1992–1994 — artis­tic con­sul­tant and prin­ci­pal con­duc­tor at the S. Moniuszko State Phil­har­monic in Koszalin;
• 1995–2001– head and artis­tic direc­tor and prin­ci­pal con­duc­tor at the O. Kol­berg Phil­har­monic and the Oper­atic Stage in Kielce;
• 2001– artis­tic direc­tor and prin­ci­pal con­duc­tor of Ortho­dox Music Cham­ber Choir at the War­saw Cham­ber Opera.

Szy­mon Kawalla has con­tin­u­ally per­formed at home and abroad since 1966 giv­ing over 5000 sym­phonic, ora­to­rio and oper­atic per­for­mances in such coun­tries as: United King­dom, Aus­tria, Bel­gium, Belarus, Bul­garia, Czech Repub­lic, Den­mark, Fin­land, Cuba, Lux­em­bourg, Ger­many, Nor­way, Poland, Rus­sia, Roma­nia, Slo­va­kia, Switzer­land, Swe­den, Ukraine, USA, Vat­i­can, Hun­gary, and Italy.

Three ora­tory con­certs for His Holi­ness Pope John Paul II, con­certs com­mem­o­rat­ing the 5th and 10th anniver­saries of the death of King Boduin of Bel­gium, attended by Queen Fabi­ola, and year-long fes­ti­val con­certs in Johann Sebas­t­ian Bach’s year (2000) under the aus­pices of Pres­i­dent Alek­sander Kwaśniewski merit spe­cial attention.

Szy­mon Kawalla has recorded for radio, tele­vi­sion and the cin­ema since 1972 (more than 2000 min­utes) and has been record­ing for the fol­low­ing record com­pa­nies since 1977: Bal­can­ton (Bul­garia), Cam­bria Records (USA), Cen­taur Records (USA), Con­nifer Records (United King­dom), JIGU (South Korea), Vienna Mod­ern Mas­ters (USA-Austria) two Pol­ish com­pa­nies, Pol­skie Nagra­nia and Veriton.

He began to teach in 1966. He has taught at music schools of all lev­els in Kraków, War­saw, Toruń, Byd­goszcz and Zielona Góra. He has worked at the Fry­deryk Chopin Uni­ver­sity of Music in War­saw since 1966, first as assis­tant pro­fes­sor and now as pro­fes­sor (1986).

He also lec­tures at Inter­na­tional Mas­ter Courses in Zagan, Sarospateek (Hun­gary), Łańcut (Poland), Taegu and Jeju (South Korea). He is an expert for the State Accred­i­ta­tion Commission.

State awards

• 1985 — Sil­ver Cross of Merit
• 1996 — Knight of the Order of the Pol­ish Revival
• 2004 — Offi­cer of the Order of the Pol­ish Revival
• He has also been granted many awards by the Min­is­ter of Cul­ture and Art as well as regional and cre­ative com­mu­nity awards.

Com­po­si­tion activities

Most impor­tant compositions

• 1966 — Diver­ti­mento for Strings and Percussion
• 1969 — Pater Kolbe oratory
• 1970 — Wit Stwosz cantata
• 1990 — Sta­bat Mater
• 1991 — Can­tata in Com­mem­o­ra­tion of the 15th Anniver­sary of the Pon­tif­i­cate of Pope John Paul II
• 2002 — Fan­tasy for Solo Violin
• 2006 — Ara­bic Impres­sions for Solo Violin
• 2006 — Santo subito for bari­tone and mixed choir
• 2006 — Noven­na­lia for soprano and mixed choir

Most impor­tant elaborations

• 1982 — Kurpiński — The Bat­tle of Moza­jsk sym­phony
• 1983 — Kamieński — Des­ti­tu­tion Made Happy opera
• 1984 — Kamieński — Can­tata Com­mem­o­rat­ing the Cen­te­nary of the Relief of Besieged Vienna
• 1986 — Żeleński — Can­tata Com­mem­o­rat­ing the Bicen­te­nary of the Relief of Besieged Vienna
• 1986 — K. Jegier­ski — Casimire ter­ris mirae cantata

e-mail: szymonkawalla@go2.pl